The First Civil Conversation
by SaidbhinLuch
Summary: After Sirius sent Snape to the Whomping Willow, Lily happened to come across James in the Common Room and he asks her for advice as she's the only one who can help... Rating for one itty bitty curse world... James was quite mad... whoops?


_**Anything you recognise is the reigning Queen of this 'verse... J.K Rowling... I bow to her genius!**_

* * *

Lily was scanning through one of the wizarding magazines that had been tossed around in the Girls Dorms whilst laughing and talking with her friends; Sam, Mary and Alice. She was finally unwinding after the stressful O.W.L.'s and taking it easy. Her head whipped up as a loud bang ripped through the relative peace of the Common Room. Lily rolled her eyes at the girls when she realised that the disturbance had come from the Boy's Dorms.

Typical Marauder stuff.

Or so she thought until an incensed James Potter came storming down the staircase with a confused Sirius and Peter following behind.

Lily and her friends exchanged baffled looks as they turned round to see what was going one.

'Mate, what is your problem?' Sirius demanded stepping forwards Potter.

Lily had never seen Potters' face so cold or so angry, not even when Sev- Snape called her a 'Mudblood'.

'You stay here and I'm going to make sure you didn't totally fuck up!' Potter snapped before he sprinted out of the room, his robes swirling in a fashion almost as dramatic as his exit.

Silence permeated through the common room.

Lily looked up at Black who was staring after Potter looking completely shocked at his best friends' uncharacteristic behaviour.

After about ten minutes the chatter in the Common Room had reached typical levels once again, but Lily found that she couldn't focus on her work. She leaned back in her chair and stared out the window, where she was convinced she could see a black blur racing across towards the Whomping Willow?

What on earth was he playing at?

Lily got up and looked out the window and frowned, hands folded across her chest.

'You okay Lily?' Mary asked, pushing back her hair and arching an eyebrow at Lily.

'Yeah, it's just what happened earlier... I mean Black and Potter fighting? That has got to be a first... And I think he's just gone to the Whomping Willow...' Lily trailed off staring out at the sky where she could see the full moon glimmering in the twilight sky.

Full Moon.

The Whomping Willow?

Lily spun round and stormed over an unusually quiet Black who was huddled in one of the cushy chairs. Lily's eyes widened as she began to figure out what the commotion may have been about and she stormed over to him.

'What did you do Black?' She demanded leaning over him one hand placed at the back of the chair, the other tightly clenched into a fight.

Black stared up at her with eerily empty slate eyes.

'It was just a prank... I didn't think Snape would be thick enough-' With that Lily was gone, following in Potters footsteps and ignoring her friends startled calls.

She sprinted down the stair case at break neck speed ignoring the fact that she was barrelling through anyone and everyone in her path. Lily was praying to whatever deity was out there that she was wrong, that Sirius hadn't sent someone to Remus in the middle of his transformation.

As she skidded into the Entrance Hall she saw both Potter forcing a struggling Snape through the main door. Lily raced down the staircase towards the pair holding her wand out as a precaution.

'Evans!' To say that Potter was stunned to see her was an understatement, his jaw dropped and in his surprise he very nearly let Snape go, but he caught himself in time and held on.

'Lupin. Werewolf. Black. YOU!' Snape seemed only to have the ability to spit out disjointed words. Lily looked up horrified at Potter as she realised that Snape had in fact seen Remus transforming. Potter was looking at her for the first time with a solemn expression. She shut her eyes slowly as she felt her heart and stomach plummet.

'Get him to the Hospital Wing. I'll get Professor McGonagall.' Lily quietly uttered as she helped him drag Snape up the stairs.

* * *

Lily groaned as she threw off her bed covers and opened the curtains around her bed.

She took a quick look at her watch and sighed when she saw it was three a.m.

She grabbed her Gryffindor jumper and slippers and padded down the Common Room with a book in the hopes that she could tire herself out.

Lily looked round the Common Room carefully as she noticed the fire had been relit in the fireplace. She stopped as she saw a glum James Potter sitting in one of the chairs nearest the fire, head in his hands.

'Potter? You okay?' She asked softly placing a hand on his shoulder. For once Potter didn't have a quick joke or a stupid pick up line for her he just stared at her with wounded eyes.

Lily smiled sadly at him before sitting down in the chair opposite him. She pulled her legs up underneath her and stared into the fire. She placed her book on the table in front of her and crossed one arm across her stomach and placed her chin in her other hand.

'How do you deal with it?'

The question was so quiet that Lily almost missed it. She looked round to see James staring up at her with a broken expression dancing across his face.

'Deal with what?'

'Deal with the very real possibility of having to let a best friend go?'

Lily looked down at the table in front of her for a moment and looked at James for another long one trying to gather her thoughts.

'Well... With Sev- I mean Snape... I guess I'd been trying to make excuses for him for a while. I kept seeing the boy I used to know. The one who introduced me to the world of magic and showed me how special I could be...' Lily trailed off, smiling wistfully at memories of her and the old Sev.

'But... Once he said... what he said... Well it was the straw that broke the camel's back I guess.' Lily looked up as she heard a noise come from James.

As she looked and him and was stunned to see that tears had formed in his eyes. Lily blinked rapidly trying to process this and discovered that she too had welled up. Lily unfolded herself from the chair and sat down in front of the fire. Almost as though he was reading her mind, James followed suit.

'I never understood what exactly brought you two together, but I was jealous to be honest. Now I'm just confused...' Lily looked up at him as he stared into the fire, the warm light highlighting his rather handsome features.

Not that Lily would ever admit that she thought he was handsome.

Oh no.

Not Lily Evans.

'Sirius did a terrible thing, I mean beyond horrifying really. He sent Snape down to Remus during the full moon! He was going to use Remus as a deadly weapon! As a PRANK?' James' voice grew increasingly louder and Lily grabbed his hand, trying to soothe him.

Lily closed her eyes and took a deep steadying breath.

'You doubt whether or not you can be friends with him? Well... I knew I had to stop seeing Snape because I knew it wouldn't be the last time he'd do something like that. I've been telling him for years to stop hanging out with that group of friends, but he ignored me... And then there've been those rumours about the attacks on students like me... Especially when he'd refuse to talk about it...'

Lily sniffled as tears slowly fell down her face, she felt James squeeze her hand gently and she leaned her head back to gaze up at the ceiling.

'It was the hardest decision I've ever made in my entire life... I'm always going to miss the Sev, but seeing him now... Despite how god awful I feel, I know that deep down it was the right decision to make. What you need to decide is... well... can you trust Sirius again? Can Remus? And do you think he'll make the same decision again?'

Neither Lily nor James moved for the rest of the night, they both sat there staring into the dwindling embers, hands held in a simple clasp. As the sunlight began to creep across the floor Lily felt her eyes beginning to drop and started as James got up slowly.

'I'm going to check on Remus, I can't go anywhere near Sirius right now...' As Lily began to move James offered his hand to her and helped her up.

'I'll make sure he doesn't leave here. Tell Remus I'll see him later.' As Lily began to move away she was surprised to feel a tug backwards. Before she knew it, Lily found herself being enveloped in a massive bear hug by James Potter.

And she wasn't hexing him to tiny pieces...

The world had really turned topsy turvy on her.

'Thanks Lily.' He leaned back while holding on to her arms smiling sweetly at her. As he moved away towards the Potrait Hole he waved slightly.

'Anytime... James.'

And with that Lily headed upstairs with the intention of writing of letter warning Sirius not to leave his room and get some sleep before she had to wrap her head around what had just happened.

Mainly her managing to have a civil conversation with James Frickin' Potter.

Was the universe about to implode or something?

As she plodded back into her room, she figured that should wait until she had a decent amount of sleep.

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**_Howdy folks! I haven't written any Harry Potter fic in years so I figured I'd give it another whirl..._**

As always please read and review!

**_AUTHORS NOTE 27/08/2012:_ Just noticed that the line break that was supposed to break up the story from the immediate aftermath and Lily and James talking was missing, AWKWARD! So sorry about that! All fixed now!_  
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